Browsing by Author "Aakansha Pandey"

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Building Resilient Urban Futures: Adapting Cities to Climate Change Challenges
(Springer, 2024) Anshul Jaiswal; R. Sagar; Aakansha Pandey; Deepankar Yadav; Mohd. Sirazuddin Ansari; Richa Rawat
As urbanization continues to accelerate worldwide, cities face increasing challenges posed by climate change. Urban areas, as hubs of economic, social, and environmental activity, are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and sea-level rise. In response, the concept of urban resilience has emerged as a critical framework for understanding and addressing these challenges. This abstract explores the nexus of urban resilience and climate change, focusing on the strategies, challenges, and opportunities for building resilience in cities. It examines the various dimensions of urban resilience, including infrastructure, governance, social dynamics, and economic systems, and highlights the importance of integrating climate adaptation and mitigation efforts into urban planning and development processes. Key strategies for enhancing urban resilience include investments in green infrastructure, adoption of nature-based solutions, promotion of sustainable urban design and land-use planning, and strengthening of social cohesion and community engagement. However, numerous challenges hinder the implementation of these strategies, such as limited financial resources, institutional barriers, political constraints, and social inequalities. Nevertheless, amidst these challenges lie opportunities for innovation and transformation. Cities have the potential to leverage emerging technologies, harness data-driven approaches, and foster collaboration across sectors and stakeholders to enhance their resilience to climate change. Furthermore, by adopting a holistic and inclusive approach to urban resilience, cities can not only mitigate the impacts of climate change but also create more equitable, sustainable, and livable urban environments for all residents. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.
Feedback of litter decay to temporal stability of biomass under N-inputs
(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2024) Preeti Verma; R. Sagar; Aakansha Pandey
Nitrogen (N) input affects litter decay and ecosystem functioning. However, the mechanism of litter decay under temporal N-inputs has rarely been observed. Here we show that three-year experimental N-inputs significantly stimulated the rate of litter decay to some extent and then inhibited it with increasing N-inputs. The N-inputs affected the litter's mass loss by directly influencing the temporal stability of aboveground biomass (BS) and diversity while indirectly changing soil pH, C: N ratio, and synergistic interactions of soil, vegetation, and microbial traits. The BS has emerged as a significant regulatory factor for the litter decay of tropical grassland. The outcome of the present study will be helpful in predicting the global feedback of litter decay on the N inputs and the amount of N required for the sustainable functioning of the degraded tropical or similar grasslands. © 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Unraveling the Vulnerability of Dry Tropical Grassland to Climate Change: A Case Study from an Asymmetrical Warming Experiment
(CRC Press, 2025) Mohd Sirazuddin Ansari; Ram Sagar; Aakansha Pandey; Deepankar Yadav; Anshul Jaiswal; Richa Rawat
Tropical grasslands are vital ecosystems that support biodiversity, carbon balance, and food security. However, these ecosystems are thought to be increasingly vulnerable to climate change, particularly the asymmetric pattern of global warming, where day and night temperatures rise at different rates. This study explores the effects of nighttime warming (NW) and daytime warming (DW) on dry tropical grasslands due to limited studies. The response of DW and NW on aboveground processes has been reported from temperate or alpine ecosystems and is rare on belowground processes. Still, none of the studies are occurring in tropical ecosystems, especially in grasslands, that decipher how they change the belowground processes, specifically soil microbial communities and their functional attributes such as extracellular enzymatic activities. Therefore, we investigated the short-term effects of asymmetrical warming patterns (+0.9°C during daytime and +1.5°C during nighttime temperature treatment compared to the control) on soil microbial composition and their functional attributes through a controlled field experiment designed at the Botanical Garden of Banaras Hindu University campus, Varanasi. The present study showed that NW treatment caused more adaptable conditions for microbes than DW treatment, affecting nutrient dynamics, which might be a reason for differential shifts in microbial communities due to asymmetrical warming. These findings highlighted the consideration of asymmetric warming in climate models for better predictions of tropical grassland responses to climate change. This short-term study may be effective in developing conservation and management strategies and adaptive practices to mitigate global climate change impacts on belowground processes via microbial composition and their functional attributes in dry tropical grasslands. © 2026 selection and editorial matter, Sk Ajim Ali, Quoc Bao Pham, and Yunqing Xuan; individual chapters, the contributors.